A Cottage by the Sea

Grateful for family and friends

6/13/2021

Another rare day in June. In a positive way, chipmunks are taking over our wildlife sanctuary; family will be here during the week. Camp Fisher will be open, culminating in a mini family reunion of cousins.
I am prepared to step into my extroverted way of being, always balanced, of course, with times for solitude. The newly tidied Angel Room, with pictures and wall hangings finally added, will offer me the solace I always long for. Again, I am reminded that I don’t feel lonely in solitude because I am not alone. Every morning I can honestly express gratitude for family and friends.

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Listen to the silence

6/8/2021

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We seem to be living in our own wildlife sanctuary. Grey, the fox, the hawk, birds, chipmunks and squirrels, and yesterday morning, a doe and her very young fawn. They were lawn statues for quite a while until the mama noticed my movement in the window; off they went.
These sentient beings need to be on the alert; it’s a matter of life and death. And yet, here I am on this humid day, being very restful and attending to Rumi’s advise: Listen to the silence. It has so much to say.
For years I’ve loved that suggestion because it implies that in listening to the silence, I don’t have to do anything. I know that’s true, but it’s only lately that I have practiced the advice. I don’t have to be active all the time. Neither do you. Try sitting in the silence. It has so much to say.

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Grieving our resident squirrel

6/4/2021

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We are grieving the loss of one of our resident squirrels, but are coming to terms with natural needs and ways of the neighborhood hawk. Yesterday, less than a foot from the sunroom window, on our patio furniture sat a red-tailed hawk, clawing the pachysandra. That is, until he came up with a grey-tailed squirrel, which he then carried ten feet onto the blue-stone. I watched the squirrel’s tail slowly stop moving until it came to a dead stop. The hawk then dragged the corpse to the grass to begin (and finish) his meal. As he flew away, all I could see that remained was some fur.
Before I got out there to examine the remains, our lawn service had mowed and cleared the patio. Later the day I saw NO evidence of the meal. I like to give the hawk some credit for being a good kindergartener who knows how to clean up his own mess!

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Blogging: It all about love

6/3/2021

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I go back and forth on whether to keep this blog going, or give it a final bow. For twelve years I have been faithful to it, offering a daily quote during my cottage days, and after that, a quote every other day. That routine I love and want to keep up. So, for this moment at least, I shall do so. My longing and commitment to silence, solitude, and simplicity remains strong, and feels pretty much hardwired. To continue to write about it calls for some kind of shift, but I don’t know what that might be. So, in keeping with what I have always done, I share my thinking with you.
There is no external need to keep posting. I’m not trying to make money or even gather a following. Neither of those have ever been my goal. So, I tell myself, post whenever you want and leave it at that. And yet, to my few followers who do check in to see how things are going with me, I feel an obligation to keep a presence.
   This is how I see it. Blogs are not personal journals. Rather they are a public offerings of what is personally important that the blogger wants to share. Why share? I’ve always liked sharing what I have done and what is important in my life, and I’ve always appreciated learning about the life experience of others. The books that I wrote for teachers, in which I described what I did in my classroom and why I did it, are examples of this. In Very Grateful: The Story of My Hundred Year Old Mother and Me, I told about how my mother and I experienced the last two years of her life together.
                       *****
   Writing all of that has helped. Writing always does. Now that I think about it, my blogs are really a cleaned up version of a personal journal. Truth be told, I blog more for ME than for you. It’s all about me, so the expression goes, and shamefully I admit that to be true. But in blogging about me, I hope you can absorb what I share into it’s all about you, so that in blogging about me and you, we both can admit that it’s all about love.  I gotta keep at it.

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Our bunny is back

5/24/2021

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We thought Grey was a male; we though Grey was our fox, living somewhere on our propter. Wrong and wrong.
Grey is a female living up the street in under our neighbors shed. Actually, she is not living there anymore but it was the home she picked to birth her nine (or was it eleven) cubs. Our neighbor has videos showing the cubs appearing and disappearing from under the shed, but unfortunately I don’t have copies. The family disappeared for a week, then reappeared to the birthing shed, but now they are gone.
There have been many sighting of Grey throughout the neighborhood, along our busy street, and on the side streets behind the cemetery. Bunnies have returned to our yard, which convinces us that Grey hasn’t been here since she gave birth. We wish her and all her cuties well.

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Animal watch

5/19/2021

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A resident is peaking out of that hole

Just a catchup on the latest animal watch around here. The last time I saw Grey was a week ago as he proudly strolled across a neighbor’s front yard. I was on my way home from my evening walk to the cemetery when I saw him; he hardly gave me glance. They say fox are not afraid of humans.
Much to our relief our resident bunny made an appearance near our patio a few days ago.
Today I must purchase a humming bird feeder and stand. Two hummers arrived yesterday winging around for food.
Finally, I am still concerned that when we cut down one of the big maples in our yard, the families of squirrels living there will have to find another apartment building. We’re sorry to have to evict them, but if we don’t take the tree down, it will find its own way—probably not onto our house, but maybe toward our neighbors or across the road.

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Solitude is not synonymous with sedentary

5/17/2021

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Solitude can be a challenge for ADHD type like me. I don’t/can’t sit still for long. Actually it’s only a challenge if I think I should sit still for a long time. As a kid I was sometimes told to sit still, or at least people comment on continual moving about, although they were always nice about it. Probably because I was a happy-go-lucky kid. I learned early that people are kinder to kids who smile. True for adults, too, but I think it’s harder for adults to catch onto that if they didn’t grow up acting happy. They have to work at it, that is if they are even aware of what they can get away with by smiling.
As a kid, even though I was social, I loved spending time by myself. Many memories, still vivid, are of playing alone in my room, or wandering in the woods checking out my forts. I was always on the move.
And so today, in my solitude, I move from post to post, from activity to activity. Solitude is not synonymous with sedentary.

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Resident fox

5/13/2021

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We have a resident fox. Grey, as in fox, first appeared a few weeks ago, and has continued to visit every few days, at daybreak of late afternoon. At least, that’s when we’ve noticed him.
One morning I saw him dash away from my kitchen window where he must have been enjoying the birdseed dropped from the feeder. No wonder I haven’t see our resident bunny later. In fact, my son saw the dinner remains of some furry animal in our woods.
We love seeing Grey once in a while. He is more afraid of us than we might be of him. Truth be told, a resident fox doesn’t get in the way of our solitude.

According to humansociety.org, “A fox cutting through your yard is probably just passing through on their way between hunting areas and no action is necessary on your part.”

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Serious Lock Down Advice

5/12/2021

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This from Raven’s Bread, a newsletter for people who appreciate solitude.
http://wwww.ravensbreadministries.com

Serious Lock Down Advice: Please be careful because people are going crazy. I was just discussing this with the microwave and the toaster while drinking my tea, and we all agreed that things are getting bad. I didn’t mention this to the washing machine because she puts a different spin on EVERYTHING!! Certainly couldn’t share with the fridge ‘cause he’s been cold and distant. In the end, the iron straight- ened me out. She said the situation isn’t all that pressing and all the wrinkles will soon get ironed out. The vacuum, however, was very unsympathetic...told me to just suck it up. But the fan was VERY optimistic, giving me hope that it will blow over soon. The toilet looked a bit flushed but said nothing. I asked its opinion but the front door said goodbye 2020. I was becom- ing unhinged and the doorknob told me to get a grip. You can just about guess what the curtains told me: they said to “pull myself together.” We will survive.

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We only need one car

5/10/2021

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Now here is simplicity for you. No, not for you to follow, but as example of what we are able to do to simplify at this juncture in our life. “We now only have one car.” That’s the positive way of reporting it. I could have said, “We got rid of one of our cars,” which isn’t a negative statement, but may give a little clue to how delighted we are.
We don’t need two cars anymore. We can share. We are saving money by not paying insurance, registration, yearly inspection, and maintenance. We have more room in the garage. We gave the car to our son who will pass it on to one of our grandchildren. We kept it in good condition, but his mechanic will give it a look-over to be certain it is still good for the road.
That 2004 green Camry made important trips with me. Trips around town; trips to visit my mom; trips to the cottage-by-the-sea. Throughout it’s entire life, it proudly wore an Obama-Biden sticker, which I told me son, may be worth more than the car itself.

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Grateful for family and friends

Listen to the silence

Grieving our resident squirrel

Blogging: It all about love

Our bunny is back

Animal watch

Solitude is not synonymous with sedentary

Resident fox

Serious Lock Down Advice

We only need one car

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